Abridged Commentary

You’d think we’d wait until our final issue to have the theme ‘Termin

us’ but we aren’t known for doing the expected. We’ve had a recurrent visual obsession with fences and barriers since the beginning (have a look at the cover of the first issue if you don’t believe us) so full stops, dead ends, and termini (and what a great word that is) were always going to make an appearance. You ever get the feeling you’ve missed the bus?! 

We like our our obscure deities and myths in Abridged Towers. They serve as useful conduits for discussing contemporary ills. Terminus is a familiar but weirdly abstract word. It is a mix of the official and the mythic, the new and the very old, bringing to mind a run-down brutalist bus station in the former Soviet block, (or Leeds), as much as it does brand new chrome and plastic airports. In both places the lost and lonely wander and wonder. Abridged places. 

Thanks to everyone who makes Abridged possible. To the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, to Verbal, Golden Thread, RUA RED, Void, Art Arcadia and everyone else that supports us. And to of course our contributors and our readership. Thanks again for being part of our gloomy little world. We couldn’t do this without you. We wouldn’t want to. 

Image by Brett Evans Biedscheid: http://be-biedscheid.com/ 

Abridged is supported by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland.